Paying No Taxes

[Shooby]

Well, just did my adult 19 yr old son's tax return and Walah! His federal refund is exactly the amount that he paid in and his State refund is exactly the amount that he paid in. Sooo, I guess if you work at Burger King and low wage jobs, you really don't pay taxes. Uh huh. 

[Deleted]

Are you surprised by this?

[Opti]

Shooby wants to make a statement. I'm curious, how much of his paycheck withholding

did he not get back? Medicare, SS, UI, etc.

[Shooby]

Yes, I am making a statement. People who say "everyone pays taxes", uh huh.

[Shooby]

Mar 27, 2015 19:46:49 GMT -5 oped said:

Are you surprised by this?

Well yes, because this is the first year he has really worked and I haven't done our taxes in the past few years. DH did them or my CPA did. I decided that I am going to do them from now on and save a few bucks.

[Opti]

Mar 27, 2015 20:04:58 GMT -5 Shooby said:

Yes, I am making a statement. People who say "everyone pays taxes", uh huh.

It depends what taxes you are talking about. Some people complain about taxes and

then say lets cut SS and Medicare conveniently leaving out the fact that those "taxes"

aren't refunded. Odds are high your son's SS deductions were higher than either the

federal or state taxes which he did get back.

[Deleted]

Did he get his SS and Medi taxes back? Did he claim and receive a refund on his sales taxes?

I guess I am surprised that you are surprised that a person working fast food would not pay much in income taxes.

[TheOtherMe]

Mar 27, 2015 20:04:58 GMT -5 Shooby said:

Yes, I am making a statement. People who say "everyone pays taxes", uh huh.

He did pay income taxes if the withholding for both federal and state equaled his taxes.  I would like to come that close every year.

He also paid Social Security and Medicare taxes, which he may or may not benefit from in the future.

The employer paid unemployment taxes on him, which your son may or may not benefit from.  

Taxes have been paid--some by him and some by his employer.

[Shooby]

Mar 27, 2015 20:13:13 GMT -5 oped said:

Did he get his SS and Medi taxes back? Did he claim and receive a refund on his sales taxes?

I guess I am surprised that you are surprised that a person working fast food would not pay much in income taxes.

How about SOME income tax? How bout a flat tax?

[Opti]

Mar 27, 2015 21:03:16 GMT -5 Shooby said:

Mar 27, 2015 20:13:13 GMT -5 oped said:

Did he get his SS and Medi taxes back? Did he claim and receive a refund on his sales taxes?

I guess I am surprised that you are surprised that a person working fast food would not pay much in income taxes.

How about SOME income tax? How bout a flat tax?

You can always choose not to send his tax returns as a protest.

That is if getting back less than 50% of his paycheck withholding seems too generous to you.

[taxref]

This thread is not within the "Tax Talk" parameters. I would recommend that posters read Moonbeam's sticky at the top of Tax Talk, and that this thread be moved to a Money and Politics section.

[Opti]

I agree it should be moved. I peruse New Topics. I didn't realize this was

in Tax Talk.

[mmhmm]

I'm going to move this thread to Your Money. It really doesn't belong here in Tax Talk. This forum is primarily for people to utilize when they need advice on tax specifics.

mmhmm, Administrator

[Shooby]

Ok I wasn't sure where to put it.

[Shooby]

Mar 27, 2015 21:17:04 GMT -5 Opti said:

Mar 27, 2015 21:03:16 GMT -5 Shooby said:

How about SOME income tax? How bout a flat tax?

You can always choose not to send his tax returns as a protest.

That is if getting back less than 50% of his paycheck withholding seems too generous to you.

How about I pay less and people with incomes pay Income tax?

[Deleted]

Mar 27, 2015 20:04:58 GMT -5 Shooby said:

Yes, I am making a statement. People who say "everyone pays taxes", uh huh.

I doubt anyone here says "everyone pays income taxes". 

I have no income tax obligation, but I certainly pay taxes.  Property taxes, SS and medicare, sales tax, tax on my utility bills, tax on my cell phone bill, tax on my dogs license, tax on getting my tabs renewed on my van...

[Deleted]

You want him to live with you forever?

[Opti]

Not sure if Shooby is in Arizona or not, but I wonder if she's ever looked into

state revenues to influence why or why not she feels collecting income tax

is so important.

I just found something from the Arizona's Department of Revenue. It

was enlightening. The net receipts from corporate income tax is actually

less than the net refunds for taxpayer income tax. Retail taxes are big as one would expect.

I'd recommend printing it out to study, but just as a quick ballpark look-

Corporate income tax net receipts about 12 million

Taxpayer income tax net receipts about 250 million

Retail sales tax (two parts, the big one) over 4 billion (34.49% of this goes to the general fund, the rest to towns and counties)

www.azdor.gov/Portals/0/TaxFacts/0714Taxfact.pdf

If I skimmed correctly, non-income taxes account for about $ 8 billion in revenue.

[tallguy]

He did pay income taxes if the withholding for both federal and state equaled his taxes. I would like to come that close every year.

I'm guessing that the withholding and the tax liability were both zero.  Not unusual for low-wage or part-time workers who don't necessarily work a full year. 

[tskeeter]

Mar 27, 2015 20:04:58 GMT -5 Shooby said:

Yes, I am making a statement. People who say "everyone pays taxes", uh huh.

After the earned income tax credit, does he get more back than he paid in?

[Shooby]

Mar 27, 2015 22:44:09 GMT -5 oped said:

You want him to live with you forever?

He's in school. Duh. He will have the rest of his working life to get hosed by the govt.

[alabamagal]

Mar 27, 2015 23:41:15 GMT -5 tskeeter said:

Mar 27, 2015 20:04:58 GMT -5 Shooby said:

Yes, I am making a statement. People who say "everyone pays taxes", uh huh.

After the earned income tax credit, does he get more back than he paid in?

You don't get EITC if you are a dependent. If you are 24 or under you don't get it unless you have a dependent. If you are 24 or older you can get it but not as much as if you have a dependent.

To get the big EITC you have to be single, low wage and kids.

[Deleted]

DS called me about this time a few years ago because he found out that he'd had zero withheld for Federal taxes for the past year. He'd been working in a good job at the same employer since college and HR swore that he'd told them to change to zero withheld.  He swears he didn't (I believe him) and said that it may have happened when he got an increase due to a promotion so he'd been expecting his take-home pay to increase anyway.  Turned out he didn't owe much anyway because he had big charitable and mortgage interest deductions.

Shooby, if DS is going to be in the same situation for 2015 maybe he could claim that he's exempt from withholding.  It would give him a nice bump in take-home pay.

[Deleted]

As a self-employed human, I pay about $600 a year of income on an income less than 10K.

I also pay $700 a year in property taxes, and nearly 10% sales tax on every purchase that is not food.

[dondub]

 Did he work 40 hours a week at minimum wage?

 Does shooby want those that do to be even poorer because they get "hosed by the government"?

 Does shooby support government subsidies for workers that qualify because they are paid a non living wage?

 Does she support a much higher, and indexed to inflation, minimum wage?

 Is she offering a solution to the dilemma presented by the Wal*Marts of the world where a large percentage of their workers receive some form of government assistance?

 Does she consider that to be corporate welfare for the richest family in the world?

 Does she support this type of corporate welfare versus her son paying no income tax?

 How about this.....you want everyone to pay income tax how about paying them enough so they can, without needing subsidies of any kind, without corporations slurping at the public trough thus 'hosing the citizenry'.

 Shooby...please answer these questions. TYIA. Your pal, Don.

[Shooby]

I do not care if others dont pay. But neither should I pay out the arse either.

[Shooby]

I do not care if others dont pay. But neither should I pay out the arse either. Or give me a freebie on the first 30 k.

[Deleted]

Mar 28, 2015 12:05:19 GMT -5 Shooby said:

I do not care if others dont pay. But neither should I pay out the arse either. Or give me a freebie on the first 30 k.

You do get this.  $12400 standard deduction (or more if you can itemize), $7900 personal exemptions on you and your spouse (+3950 for each dependent), up to 35K can be put in 401Ks between you two, but if you don't have a plan then you figure a minimum of 11K in IRAs.  If you have a cafeteria plan you don't pay taxes on insurance premiums...

Anyhow, with me making 35K, take out insurance, 401K, standard and personal exemptions for me and two kids, FSA contributions, and there is no taxable income left.  I'm not getting special treatment here.

Now, credits is a different animal. 

[phil5185]

Corporate income tax net receipts about 12 million
Taxpayer income tax net receipts about 250 million
Retail sales tax (two parts, the big one) over 4 billion

Seems like a great simplification opportunity. Do away with the $12m corp income tax, do away with the $250M personal income tax - and increase the sales tax to $4.262B. Almost all of the complex paper-shuffling occurs in that 0.262B.   I'd be very happy to pay a 7.25% sales tax (instead of 6.8%) to rid of the AZ Income Tax.

[Shooby]

Mar 28, 2015 14:04:07 GMT -5 Sum Dum Gai said:

Does your son use a car?  Did he put gas in it?  He paid fuel taxes.

Did he buy anything at a store during the year?  He paid sales tax.

Were his wages reported to the government as required by law?  He paid FICA taxes.

Does he pay for his own cellphone?  He paid taxes and fees buried in his cell plan.

Etc.

Etc.

Etc.

Everyone pays taxes.

You seem to think I am arguing for him to pay more. We should all be paying less to the GREEDY Govt.